Discover Me
by You'reABirdOfTheSummer
Summary: It's been a generation's length since the war and finally the magical world is back on its feet. Who knew a seventh year could pave the way for an era of discovery and prosperity? Especially with everything else a teenager has to deal with. Reposted.
1. Departure

**Prologue- Departure**

Desiree had hauled the immensely heavy trunk down to the front door, she had packed away everything from her room and she had already dressed in her school robes. Everything was ready for her to leave for her final year at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry.  
>Well, not everything.<p>

Before shutting her bedroom door she took one last look around it. The large room was beautifully furnished, but looked as though it never been lived in. Which except for six weeks a year, it wasn't. The huge windows looked out over the shimmering swimming pool and tennis courts, any other girl would have killed to live in such luxury. Desiree on the other hand, resented it; she had kept to her own room for the majority of the holidays, alone with her books and her experiments. She looked down at the floor, and walked down the four flights of stairs to the kitchen. She walked in, and three people were stood drinking coffee.

"Ah, Desiree... still here?" Asked her father haughtily. The tall, strongly built man was stood leaning against the kitchen counter sipping a cup of coffee with his moustached mouth. He dressed in beige golfing shorts, and a pale yellow cashmere jumper. One arm was round Desiree's mother, she was wearing an expensive suit, her pencil skirt just skimming her knees. Her smooth blonde hair slicked back into a pony tail which swung as she walked. She was chatting animatedly with the third person, whilst tapping ferociously on keys of her Blackberry.

"I'm just leaving," Desiree said quietly.

"Oh Desiree!" The other woman exclaimed, her dark hair piled on top of her head and her lips painted crimson. "Doesn't your school have an interesting uniform? Most schools have a blazer!"

Desiree smiled awkwardly at her mother's PA, as her mother gave her a stern look.

"We best be going Anthea," she said briskly, picking up her large leather handbag and poising on the crook of her elbow. "Now do remember Desiree, your father and I are in Fiji for Christmas, you can stay at school can't you?"

"Yes Mother," Desiree said quietly, looking at the floor.

"Excellent, safe journey and all that," she said, kissing the air, a good five inches from her daughter's face. She gave her a judging look and turned away from her. "Bye babe," she said to her husband, kissing him full on the lips. "We're meeting at the restaurant at seven remember." She flashed him a smile. "Ciao!" she said, waving with her hand above her head and striding from the room without another glance at her daughter, Anthea scurrying along behind her.

"What time do you have to be school?" Her father asked her coldly after a few seconds awkward silence.

"By six, I'm not taking the train this year," Desiree said quietly. "I should go... Bye Dad."

"Yes. See you next summer," he said, sounding bored. Desiree stood still for a second, half hoping she would receive a hug, a proper goodbye; then again she hadn't been hugged by her parents for six years. Just as she deep down, she knew he would, her Dad turned around to put his mug in the sink. Desiree nodded slightly and bit her lip, taking a deep breath she laid a folded piece of parchment on the counter, and turned to leave the kitchen.  
>Walking down the long corridor to the front of the house, pictures of her with her parents jumped out at her, from their ornate frames. Photographs taken on holiday, on walks, at Christmas, on her birthday. Each one of them was like a knife in Desiree's back. Ghosts of a time when her parents loved her, ghosts of a time they and she had no idea of who she really was. If a stranger to the family were to walk in now, they would believe a ten year old girl was the only child of Mr and Mrs Michaels, instead of the seventeen year old who was leaving the house at this moment. It made Desiree's heart clench painfully to remember her childhood, sometimes she wondered whether it would have been better if her parents had always been indifferent to her. Just so she never knew what she was missing.<br>She got to the front door, and took the handle of her school trunk. Just as she was opening the door she heard the shout from the back of the house.

"What do you mean you're not coming back?"  
>He'd read it.<p>

Swiftly she walked through the door, and closed it roughly behind her. As she walked down the path, past the rose bushes and geraniums a solitary tear slid down her cheek. Without another look back at her childhood home, Desiree clenched her teeth, closed her eyes and turned on the spot.

When she opened them she was on the familiar cobbled streets of Hogsmeade station. She could smell fresh pastries and the smoke of the Hogwarts express. She could feel the air being sharper, cooler than where she had just left, far to the south. But most of all, she could sense the magic, she couldn't touch it or smell it. But she could feel it; it made her skin tingle and heart feel lighter. With a sad smile she walked toward the crowds of students walking up to the castle.  
>She was finally home.<p>

With a flicker of her wrist her trunk went soaring over to the rest of them, which were just being unloaded off the train and trying not to let her robes catch in the mud she stepped into one of the carriages, already filled with her fellow Ravenclaws, who each greeted her with enthusiasm, but all she gave them was a hollow pleasantry and a polite nod of the head.


	2. Arrival

**Arrival**

"Anthony Jameson and Desiree Michaels."

The hall exploded with cheers, clapping and wolf whistles. Desiree smiled graciously and flicked her long, champagne coloured hair over her shoulder. After shooting a look at Anthony at the Hufflepuff table, they proceeded up to the high table together. The students knew it would be Desiree for Head girl, she was almost obsessive over it, her commitment and perfectionist attitude in every area of her life was a little unnerving for her peers. But they all knew she was the best person for the job, and she was Triwizard champion and Quidditch captain, it would have been madness for Dumbledore not to choose her.

"Thank you professor," she said as shook her head of house's hand. Then she moved along the table to where a girl with long, fiery red hair stood, presented her with a gold badge, with the letters _HG_ emblazoned on it. She pinned next to the silver, red and blue badges on her chest.

"Thank you Lily," she whispered to her friend.

"You're going to do be fantastic Des, show me up," she last year's head girl said with a wink.

The moved along to shake hands with Professor Dumbledore.

Desiree took a deep breath.  
>There had not been a Ravenclaw head boy or girl in fifteen years, and now it was her. She looked across to the Ravenclaw table and the whole table was on their feet, cheering and clapping as loud as they could. She smiled over toward them all. Her name was going on the list in the trophy room, she was going to be invited back, this time next year to present the badge to the next head girl, just like Lily Potter was here doing today. She would miss Lily; the older girl was in Gryffindor but had shared her love of knowledge and was without a doubt her best and honestly only real friend throughout her Hogwarts career. But she wasn't going to let that mar her moment. As her and Anthony stood in front of the desk, she vowed to be as good a head girl as the legendary Hermione Granger. She had proved herself so far, now she had to go the extra mile. As soon as the celebrating had stopped, the headmaster stood up and said a few words, and they then returned to their seats. The Ravenclaws clapped and hugged her as she sat down, some were even crying. This meant a lot to the entire house.<p>

After the uproar had subsided a few more start of term notices were given by various members of staff, and the students in the hall were dismissed.

Desiree quickly beckoned over the Ravenclaw prefects. They all stood in a semi-circle around her, and Robin, the other seventh year prefect.

"I have a few urgent start of term announcements to make," she said in a business-like tone. "I'd like to welcome Karen and Jamie, I'm sure you will do a fantastic job as prefects," she said quickly gesturing to the two fifth year prefects. "And to Tina, who is taking over me as seventh year prefect," she gesturing to the redhead who used to be in her dorm. "The Ravenclaw prefect team meeting will be in our office opposite the Ravenclaw common room on Monday evenings. Tomorrow morning however, Robin and I would like you all to arrive at two o'clock, so we can run through duty timetables, before they need to be put in to practice tomorrow evening." She shot a look at Robin, who nodded along with her; he had long ago accepted that she was in charge.

"The inter house prefect meeting times have yet to be determined, I will tell you tomorrow after I have spoken with the Head Boy. I assure you that will not happen at the same time as our Quidditch training schedules, and they will take place in the Head's quarters. Any questions?" she paused for a second but was met by no voices. "Excellent. Ola and Paul-" she said gesturing to the sixth year prefects. "You are in charge of getting the first years to the tower. Karen and Jamie, make sure no Ravenclaw students are hoping to sneak away for a wander round the castle this evening. Robin, you're in charge of the lot of them. Okay?" Again her words were met by a stunned silence, and nodding.

"Excellent, I have to go and speak with Flitwick, have a good evening," she said, dismissing them all and parting the crowd with ease, so she could walk over to the high table where her head of house was waiting for her. Ola looked at Robin.

"Does she always talk like she is an army general?"

Robin laughed, "Yes."

Ola smiled and nodded, and the prefects went on to carry out their duties.

"Excellent Desiree dear, absolutely excellent," gushed the tiny charms professor. "I always knew you had it in you! Come, I shall show you your new lodgings. Where is Tonks?"

Professor Tonks, head of Hufflepuff house joined them quickly followed by Anthony, who she had just been showering with the same praise as Flitwick had given Desiree.

"Michaels," she said, smiling warmly and clapping Desiree on the back. "I will admit I was harbouring a secret hope it would Jacqueline and Anthony."

"Now, now Tonks both heads in your own house? Getting greedy aren't we," chuckled Flitwick.

"I can hope, congratulations, Des," she laughed good naturedly. Desiree smiled and thanked her, knowing that her Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was merely teasing her.

"Shall we proceed to your quarters then?" Flitwick asked. Desiree and Anthony nodded, and their heads of house led them to the fourth floor.

"This year the headmaster has decided to make this your home," Flitwick said excitedly when they reached two small statues, one of a badger, and one of an eagle, about three feet from each other.

"'Ello, 'ello," said the badger. 

"Oh my, their gargoyles!" Desiree exclaimed, obviously impressed by their appearance.

"But we ain't so ugly," the eagle said, in a voice very similar to gargoyles across the castle.

"You may password these two as you please, later on," Flitwick said. "Would you mind letting us through?" A gaping hole appeared in the stone wall between them, revealing a set of old stone steps.

They proceeded to climb them and after a minute they emerged in a large room, which was obviously meant as a common room. The view from the windows made it obvious they were in one of the towers. The room was furnished with blue and yellow hangings indicating the houses of its occupants. That was however, the only indication of houses that the pair wanted in the room, the remainder of the room was decorated in purples and neutral colours.

"Well, this is," Tonks said clapping her hands together. "You've got a bathroom through there, and you've each got an office and- well, we'll leave to explore shall we. Congratulations again." The two Professors left and Anthony turned to Desiree.

"Well done on being head girl," he said shyly. "Everyone knew it would be you."

"Thank you," she replied. "Congratulations to you too."

Then they went on to explore the doorways which lead off of the room. The first opened onto a hallway, with two studies leading off it, with a personal library in each. The second was a bathroom that easily put the perfect bathroom on the fifth floor to shame. The third and fourth doors were passages to the second, and sixth floors. The last two doors led to the two dormitories, with their names above the door frames. Desiree was surprised that to get to her bedroom she had to walk _down _a flight of stairs, when she was so used to walking up them to get to bed. Her room was spacious and looked over the shimmering lake and her trunk, full of belongings had been left in the centre of the room for her. The room was the same size as the dormitory she had shared with four other girls for six years. There was also a small bathroom with a shower, leading off the room. It was decorated in blue silks and was light and airy, it reminded her of Ravenclaw tower.


	3. Preparation

The next morning she woke early, feeling very well rested, though it took her a minute to remember where she was. She smiled slightly, and whilst dressing took a moment to put protective enchantments over the door and windows of her bedroom, she would do the same to the entrance to the common room later. Now, she took the time to unpack properly, as last night it was late, so she had only summoned her pyjamas and toothbrush out of her drastically enlarged trunk, and then settled down to sleep.

In the seventh year at Hogwarts it is required, to achieve an O, in NEWTs that students submit an independent project for each class, showcasing their skill in the subject.

It was no secret that Desiree was brilliant, she didn't care much for socializing, but was undoubtedly brilliant, as such, she had already begun planning her projects as soon as she had got her OWL results, though most seventh years hadn't even thought about it still. Being from a very wealthy and affluent muggle family it was crucial that she carried out this in secret whilst with them in the summer.

Her mother once walked into her room unannounced and was in for a big shock, as she saw her daughter wrestling with a fully grown Venomous Tentacula. She had fainted cold on the floor, and it was twenty minutes before Desiree was in a position to help her. Of course she had not left any dangerous plants or anything at her parent's house, they had all been shrunk down and frozen using magic. She had practised this method, and although they would be ill for a few days, it would definitely be necessary for their safe transportation to Hogwarts.

She removed the products of her experimentations from her trunk. A variety of dangerous plants were removed along with a vast array of potions ingredients, piles and piles of books and some small glass tanks. She contemplated how she was going to set up her projects here. She was very grateful for the fact that she had these quarters, as she would never have been able to do this in the Ravenclaw dorms.

She decided that she wanted the plants,-particularly the Tentacula as far away from where she slept as possible, and as she wished to have many potions brewing for in some cases a period of weeks, she didn't want to be breathing in the fumes as she slept. She discovered that she could convert one of the cupboards in her study for this purpose.

She went downstairs and contemplated how exactly she would transform it until it was fit for its purpose. First she charmed it in the same way she charmed her trunk, so it was a lot bigger on the inside. She then transfigured it so, instead of resting on short wooden legs, it was bottomless and rested on the floor of her study. Then she transfigured it again, so instead of being a few feet in depth, it was only two inches thick, then she enlarged the door so it covered the whole front of the cupboard's face. Now the wardrobe looked as though it was an ornate wooden door, leading to another room. Pleased with her handy work she stepped inside, where it still looked like a stretched cupboard. She placed the hangers which hung on a rod above her head in different places in the huge cupboard and transfigured them into large wooden desks, like there was in the potions classrooms. Then she charmed the walls of the cupboard, they turned into the pale stone walls of the study outside, she then did an extremely advanced piece of magic, she had read about in a book about the ministry, and a large window appeared on one of the walls, outside of which, it appeared was an apple orchard bathed in sun. Desiree smiled, she knew she had excelled herself, and was very pleased by her handy work.

Before she could equip the room adequately she needed to find a storage cupboard. Of course she had an idea. She quickly went to the seventh floor, one of the perks of being Head Girl, was of course being able to go anywhere in the castle, at any time without retribution. However while she was up there, she decided to get an important job done. She went up to the Fat Lady.

"You're not in Gryffindor!" exclaimed the Fat Lady.

"I know, I'm Head Girl, I was wondering if you see if there are any prefects in your common room and ask them to see me a second," she asked hopefully.

"Head Girl you say," the woman said, leaning forward in the frame. "Pretty one you are... what house are you in?" she asked.

"Ravenclaw," she replied.

"Ah, if it couldn't be Gryffindor, there is no better house, Hufflepuffs are duffers and Slytherins, well that speaks for it's self. But Ravenclaw... very close to Gryffindors in attributes, no I don't mind that at all," the Fat Lady said musingly. "One second, I'll shout for one."

"Thanks." The fat lady waved a chubby hand and turned in her frame and yelled. Desiree bit back a smirk, it was well known that the fat lady was irritable in her old age, and annoyed the Gryffindors senseless.

"Oi, prefect. Head Girl wants you!" Then she turned back to Desiree with a suddenly gracious. "One's just coming." The fat lady opened to let the prefect come out, and through the portrait hole came the Gryffindor came a dark haired head.

"Hey Desiree, what's up?" asked a boy. It was Samson, a seventh boy in Desiree's Defence against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures class. He had bright blue eyes which contrasted strikingly with his dark hair.

"I was wondering whether you could give this timetable to the Gryffindor prefects," she said.

"You've got it done already?" he said incredulously. "It's ten o'clock in the morning! I only just got up." He added with a laugh.

Desiree smiled, "I like to get things done." She handed him the piece of paper. "Everyone has two shifts a week, if it needs changing for anything like extracurricular activities, I'll do my best to change it. I'll even do my best to make sure your Quidditch training isn't impeded on. Though that depends entirely how well you look like you're doing," she said with a smile. Samson laughed at thanked her.

"I'll let everyone know," he said. Then she thanked him and bid him farewell. 

Now that first piece of formality was over with, she carried on across the seventh floor. Making sure the corridor was deserted she paced quickly.

_I need the room of hidden things  
>I need the room of hidden things<em>

_I need the room of hidden things _

__The room of requirement opened itself up to her and she quickly crossed the threshold, making sure nobody was watching. She had discovered the room after a house elf in the kitchen, who she was particularly fond of, tipped her off in her third year. It had served her well over the years, it had been worth its weight in gold when she had used it as an escape from the hysteria that encircled her during the Triwizard tournament last year.

Inside was a cavernous room, which stretched as far as the eye could see. The room was full of _stuff_. Rows upon rows of stuff, piled on top of each other. Some of them broken, some of them containing dark magic, some of them just plain odd. There were however some old classroom equipment, dumped in here by teachers who couldn't be bothered to dispose of it 'properly' which required a surprising amount of paperwork. After walking about fifty yards into this Aladdin's cave of forgotten things, she saw something that would be suitable for her cause. A large but simple glass cabinet, Desiree cast a simple charm to detect any magic on this piece of furniture. None was detected, so she cleared the items from inside it and shrunk it, so she could put it in the pocket of her cardigan. She quickly consulted the map she had confiscated off a Gryffindor at the beginning of her fifth year. This map was the secret to her success as a prefect, she should have handed it in. But she didn't. It showed every corridor in the castle, and what every student was doing. The Marauder's Map. After checking the coast was clear she left, conveniently spotting a Hufflepuff and Slytherin prefect on the way, getting that job over with.

Back in her newly transformed potions room she made the cabinet full size and positioned it in the the corner of the room. She then filled it with the piles of ingredients that were previously in her trunk. Then she transfigured another hanger into a large shelf and put up her vials and bottles of previously made potions, and jars of fire. Finally she added the finishing touches to the room, by putting her large, silver cauldron in the middle of the room, and leaving her smaller pewter cauldrons on the desks, along with her other potions equipment. She filled three of the pewter cauldrons with vials of half made potions she had brought from her parents house, and put them onto a handful of bluebell flames each, so they started to bubble once again. She left the room, and enchanted the doorway, so that nobody would detect the huge amount of magic she had used on what used to be a wardrobe, and made it so it would open to nobody but herself. If anyone even tried to force open the door, she would be informed.

The next thing she had to was figure out a place to house her plants. She decided to give it some time to mull over, so sat down at her desk and wrote on a clean sheet of parchment.

**Ravenclaw Quidditch Team Try-Outs**

**Thursday 6th September  
>7pm<strong>

**Quidditch Pitch**

**First years are not permitted to join the house team**

**All those wishing to play for the house team must attend try-out and submit their name below.  
>Previous members of the house team will <span>not<span> have to retry for the house team, but students with higher ability may try out for the position successfully  
>The team will definitely require 1 chaser and 1 beater<br>All remaining members of fast year's team should be at try-outs so possible new members can be assessed on compatibility with the team. **

She put it in her pocket, checked the time, and decided to go to lunch before putting it on the noticeboard in the common room. As it was a Saturday today, they were to receive their timetables at lunch, instead of breakfast as the staff had pre-empted that many of the students would skip breakfast in favour of a lie in. Hers read:

Monday: Charms + Ancient Runes  
>Tuesday: Transfiguration + History of Magic<p>

Wednesday: Defence Against the Dark Arts + Athrimancy

Thursday: Potions + Muggle Studies + Astronomy  
>Friday: Herbology + Care of Magical Creatures<p>

The only subject she was not doing, was Divination. In previous years she had had to use a time turner to fit in all her classes, but as she was doing NEWTs, which were mostly private study, and less actual class time, in her sixth and seventh year it was easy for her to fit it all in. After eating her dinner of Shepherd's pie she hurried to Ravenclaw tower, and pinned up the Quidditch information on the notice board. Then she went to the prefects office, which to be fair was more like a mini common room. All the prefects were there already, despite it being before the designated time for their meeting. She quickly went through the time table and magically stuck a copy of it to the wall. She had bewitched the timetable to mimic her own master copy, in case she made changes. She did the start of term pep talk and overview of school rules and protocols, with exceptional vigour.

"Duties run from the nine o'clock curfew, to two o'clock. If you catch a student out of bed at this this time, you take them straight to their head of house's office. If you see anything strange on your duty you go and inform the seventh year prefect who is also on duty that evening, they have been briefed by the staff for that occurrence. Any misdemeanour's you apprehend outside of your duty time, goes through me or the head boy, unless it is to do with a confiscatable item, in which case you go to Filch, or if it is dangerous in anyway, it goes to their head of house, or the nearest teacher in extreme cases."

She had practised and perfected her speech a lot during the holidays and she thought she delivered it a lot better than last year's Ravenclaw seventh years had. The fifth years were even taking notes.

"If you have any problems with anything do not hesitate to come and find me, ask the badger, or eagle statue on the fourth floor to let you in. Okay?" Everyone nodded and soon the meeting was over. Desiree stayed to make small talk for a little bit for going to back to her study and thinking about her plants. After an hour of thinking she decided on the way to go about it.

She was going to do what she had done with the wardrobe again, she was going to duplicate the structure and put them one after the other. From inside the study it would look like a regular wardrobe, rather than the ornate door frame that was there now, as it would thicken with the addition of more rooms. But on the inside the rooms would all lead onto one another. She decided to make five in total, this would equate to the correct depth so it would look like a wardrobe from the outside. It made Desiree think of Narnia, being muggle born she had read all the C.S. Lewis books as a child, and it was no wonder she had channelled them in to her magic.

The first room stayed as her potions laboratory, the second was going to become a practice area for Defence Against the Dark Arts, she transfigured more hangers into dummies and targets and charmed the floor to be soft if you fell, and the ceiling to seem very high. Then she moved on to the third room which she had decided to become a library and room for practising charms and transfiguration, it was a simple, small room, which housed all the book collection she had which wouldn't fit in her study, which was rather a lot. She also charmed some hangers to become squashy chairs to put in here. The fourth room she decided would be her Care of Magical Creatures Room. One of the small glass tanks which were in her trunk, she enlarged so it covered one wall perfectly. Inside were many Wiggentrees, and a small population of Bowtruckles. She also enlarged a tank of non-magical stick insects, they didn't need as much space as the Bowtruckles, so it resembled more of a large fish tank. The last glass tank, was actually a fish tank, and contained tropical fish, bred from those at her parent's house. She then bewitched the floor to be grass, and another hanger into a tree growing into it, giving it the look of a walled garden.

The fifth and last room, she had decided would be where she put the plants. She bewitched the walls, to be windows, and outside to be looking over the Hogwarts lake on all sides but one, which was a stone wall where the door was. She transfigured more hangers into benches like the ones in the greenhouse, in the corner furthest she placed the potted Venomous Tentacula, on the benched she put potted Devils Snare Bushes, Fanged Geraniums, Puffapods, Mandrakes, Moonseed, Bubotubers, Abyssinian Shrivelfigs and many other magical plants. She then put her sacks of dragon dung in a stack in one corner; put her watering can, protective coat, dragon hide gloves and other equipment on hooks next to it. She put wards around the Tentacula so it couldn't stretch beyond them and eat any other of the plants. Then she lifted the freezing charm from the plants, the Tentacula coughed violently. She quickly administered the potion she had brewed, in the summer for his purpose, and the huge plant stopped spluttering and calmed, hanging it's 'head' and hiccuping every now and then. She checked over the rest of the plants administering potions and charms were necessary.


End file.
